Thomas Branch

Thomas Branch (15 October 1783-28 January 1818) was a captain of the US Army. Branch was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the First Seminole War, during which he was killed in the Boggy Branch Massacre.

Biography
Thomas Branch was born on 15 October 1783 in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. Branch was raised in an English-American settler family, and he enlisted in the US Army's Pioneer Militia in 1812 at the start of the War of 1812. Branch was deployed in Georgia during the war, where he fought against British, Spanish, and Creek enemies that attacked the Americans. After the war, he was promoted to Captain. In late 1817, he commanded a force of 540 American pioneer infantry and regular line infantry during the First Seminole War, and he was sent by General Andrew Jackson to clear present-day Clay County, Florida of Seminoles. On 28 January 1818 his force was ambushed by Chief Screaming Bird and shot to pieces in the Boggy Branch Massacre. The captain himself was hacked down with a tomahawk while fleeing with his men, and his army was cut down to only 38 men.